Prime Minister Stephen Harper defended his office and a top party official against new questions about their role in approving inappropriate Senate expenses

Prime Minister Stephen Harper repeatedly said Tuesday that former chief of staff Nigel Wright and Senator Mike Duffy are the only ones who must “be held accountable" in the controversial payment to Duffy.

OTTAWA—Prime Minister Stephen Harper defended his office and a top party official against new questions about their role in approving inappropriate Senate expenses.

The questions arose on two fronts: out of a letter released by Mike Duffy suggesting the RCMP is pursuing new leads, and out of statements made by the Conservative Party’s chief fundraiser at the party convention last weekend.

In the Commons, Harper pledged full co-operation with the RCMP investigation, but stopped short of agreeing to publicly table any documents.

Harper aggressively pushed back against opposition suggestions that the circle of those who knew of ex-chief of staff Nigel Wright’s plan to defray Duffy’s costs extended to Sen. Irving Gerstein, the millionaire businessman who chairs the Conservative Fund of Canada.

Harper appeared to suggest in French that he was lied to by Wright, when he said that he personally told Duffy to pay back his costs and “I was informed that is effectively what happened.”

But when NDP Leader Tom Mulcair asked if deputy communications director Stephen Lecce had helped to come up “with the cover-up story for Mike Duffy” that he’d gotten a bank loan to repay the $90,000 owing, Harper slammed Mulcair for “throwing out names” without any evidence.

He repeatedly said Wright and Duffy — and the other errant senators — are the only ones who must “be held accountable.”

“Of course if there is anything beyond (what) investigators think they should be charged with, they will get full assistance from our office in doing so, because we demand that kind of accountability,” said Harper.

In the letter released Monday by Duffy, the RCMP asks Duffy for any documents that might back up Duffy’s claims he got a green-light from senior Harper officials to claim housing expenses and, when it all blew up, instruction from PMO to lie about it. It also says the Mounties would contact Duffy “in the near future” to make a statement to investigators.

Clearly acting on revelations in Duffy’s explosive testimony last week in the Senate, Supt. Biage Carrese, the officer in charge of sensitive and international investigations, asked Duffy’s lawyer to produce “emails from the PMO specifically relating to a script for Senator Duffy to follow in advance of coming up with the cover-up story for Mike Duffy obtaining funds from an RBC loan to repay the receiver general.”

“The existence of such documentation may potentially be evidence of criminal wrongdoing by others,” Carrese wrote.

The prime minister again denied any knowledge of the Wright plan for repayment plan when challenged by Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau over the role of Sen. Irving Gerstein, chair of the Conservative Fund of Canada.

On Saturday, Gerstein said he told Wright the party’s fund would not pay for Duffy’s “disputed expenses” but at Wright’s request, the fund did agree to pay legal fees.

Harper said: “I did not know anything about that until May 15.”

And when Trudeau asked if Wright “deceived the prime minister, so did Senator Gerstein. Why is he still on the public payroll? Why is he still a senator?”

Harper again said Wright and Duffy alone are responsible.

“None of this holds together,” said Mulcair later.

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